


The Lost Empire

by DashFlintceschi



Series: Prompt Table [10]
Category: All Time Low, Bring Me The Horizon, You Me At Six
Genre: Attempted beheading, M/M, Mild threats of violence, More intimidation than anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 19:38:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8114926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DashFlintceschi/pseuds/DashFlintceschi
Summary: In a basement office of Johns Hopkins university, Josh Franceschi finds the answers his family have been searching for for centuries.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Number 21: Lost.
> 
> Inspired by Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, not even going to try to hide it.

In a basement office at Johns Hopkins University, Josh Franceschi pores over an old book, brow furrowed as his mouth moves, silently mouthing the words on the page as he translates, his right hand gentle and glove covered as it handles the delicate pages, left hand frantically scribbling the translations into a notebook. Suddenly, he freezes, eyes widening in surprise as they scan the line of text repeatedly, obsessively checking he’s translated properly.

After a few minutes, he jumps to his feet. Not trusting himself to handle the book in his excitement, he takes a photo of the page with his phone, grabs the notebook, and sprints from the room. Five flights of stairs later, he bursts into the department head’s office unannounced, too excited to feel apologetic, even though three other department heads are sitting with him, clearly in the middle of a meeting.

“Alex, you have to see this,” he bursts out, the rest of his words incoherent babble as he rounds the desk and throws down the notebook triumphantly. Alex flashes an apologetic look at his friends and leans over the notebook. After a minute, he looks up at Josh with confused eyes.

“What am I looking at? I can’t read this,” he tells him, and Josh unlocks his phone, showing him the photo. He humours him, silently taking the phone. “Ok, that’s the book they found in Arizona last month… Did you find something in it?” He asks, looking back up at Josh.

Far from being discouraged, Josh nods happily. He takes his phone back and zooms in on the right line.

“Just here, see. _‘After making his way through mainland Europe, the traveler made his way to Great Britain, located twenty miles from the northern French coast.’_ ” He translates excitedly, grinning as Alex sits back in stunned silence.

Finally, Alex sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Did it say anything else, or…?” He asks, and Josh deflates slightly at Alex’s lack of excitement.

“No. That’s the first mention of it, but I haven’t finished translating it yet,” he tells him, and Alex nods.

“Ok, go back and finish, let me know if you get anything more concrete. You… You know that they’re not going to fund this, no matter what you find, right?” He hedges, and Josh sighs.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been told I’m a delusional fool enough times now,” he replies almost sadly, taking the notebook back and leaving, still not noticing the other three occupants of the room. Once the door closes behind him, the three of them turn to stare at Alex.

“He thinks he’s found Great Britain? Seriously?” Jack asks with a slight laugh, and Alex shrugs.

“He’s kinda obsessed with it. His whole family have been for centuries. He’s the best damn linguist I’ve ever met, though, so I humour him,” he explains, then returns to the topic of discussion before Josh’s interruption.

By the end of the day, Josh is certain he’s found definitive proof of Britain, and its location. The book had several descriptions and maps, which, while hand-drawn, are excellent quality, and seem like the real deal. As Alex had said, the university refuse to fund an expedition. Or, as the head of the board puts it ‘refuse to waste money on a crackpot and his wishful thinking’.

Josh goes home refusing to be defeated, and starts looking online. After a few hours, he thinks he’s found his answer. Oliver Sykes, thirty year old billionaire and Baltimore’s resident weirdo. He can afford to be, though, and from what Josh has read, his weirdness extends to funding several expeditions to search for Britain, as well as several other questionable searches. After some more searching, Josh finds a phone number for his assistant, and calls to see if Oliver will meet him. They agree on an appointment at nine the next morning, and Josh spends half the night compiling his findings into a proper presentation.

When Oliver’s assistant leads Josh into his office the next morning, Josh is surprised to find seven other men sitting with him. He doesn’t let it show as Oliver motions to the last empty chair at the table and Josh takes it gratefully. Once his assistant has poured Josh some coffee and left the room, Oliver turns to Josh with a smile.

“So, you think you’ve found Great Britain?” He asks, and Josh nods, taking the folder from his bag and sliding it over to him.

“Sorry, I only have the one, I didn’t realise…” He trails off as Oliver waves away his apology.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” he insists, flicking through the folder.

Once he’s done, he looks up at Josh with a wide grin.

“Where did you find this?” He asks excitedly, and Josh returns his grin.

“It was part of a Navajo burial ground in Arizona. I’m one of only about a dozen people left who read Diné, so it was brought to me to translate,” he explains, and Oliver beams at him.

“This is wonderful! This is absolutely perfect!” He chirps, and Josh grins.

“So… You’ll fund an expedition, then?” He asks hopefully, smile dropping slightly as Oliver hesitates.

“I’ll fund it, on one condition,” he hedges, and Josh nods, sitting up a little straighter again.

“Anything. Whatever it is, I’ll do it,” he insists, and Oliver laughs slightly.

“All you have to do is agree. I’ll fund it, as long as it’s my crew that goes with you,” he explains, motioning to the seven men around him, and Josh nods.

“Sure. I mean, you wouldn’t insist if you didn’t trust them, if you didn’t know they can do it; and it’s not as if I have a crew of my own, anyway, so, sure,” he babbles slightly, and Oliver laughs.

“Alright then, I should probably introduce you,” he begins, then motions to the man on his left, who holds a striking resemblance to him. “Firstly, my brother, Tom, he’s an archaeologist, he’ll lead the expedition; Max Helyer and Jordan Fish, both explosives experts…” He trails off as Josh holds up his hand.

“Explosives? Is that really necessary?” He asks warily, and Oliver nods to Max, letting him answer.

“Not always, but often enough that it makes sense for us to go on every expedition. Better to have us and not need us, than to need us and not have us,” he explains, and Josh nods, looking back to Oliver with a slightly apologetic smile. Oliver simply smiles and waves off his silent apology, and gestures to the two men directly on Josh’s left.

“Chris Miller and Matt Barnes, our engineers; and Matt Kean and Matt Nicholls, our doctors, because you can never be too careful,” he finishes, laughing slightly at the expression on Josh’s face. “Yeah, it got confusing fast, with three Matts, so to be more accurate, from left to right, we have Matt, Vegan, and Nicholls,” he adds, and Josh nods, happy with the solution.

Later that afternoon, Josh can’t help but feel vindictively smug as he barges in on a meeting of the department heads and the board of directors, and announces he’s taking a sabbatical. Alex immediately knows why, and Josh frowns at the look of pity on Alex’s face.

“Josh, don’t… Don’t do this,” he pleads, and Josh scowls.

“I know you think I’m mad, or pathetic, probably both, but I don’t care. It’s there, I have a map to it, and now I have a way to get there, and I’m going,” he snarls, turning and leaving before Alex can say anything else.

Three weeks later, Josh and his new crew fly to France, where they head straight to Calais and board a boat. They decide to err on the side of caution and overshoot the directions. The book said twenty miles, so they travel exactly thirty miles north of Calais. Once they reach their destination and the anchor is down, they change into wetsuits and make sure all of the gear is operational.

Once they’re ready, they drop down into the water. The rest of the crew are experienced divers, whereas Josh has just spent the last three weeks learning how to dive, so they make sure he’s in the middle of the group and at least three of them have eyes on him at all times. They descend a little over two hundred and seven feet to the ocean floor, and separate into four groups of two. They spread out and start scouting, until they hear Max’s voice over the intercom.

“We’ve found a cave, looks pretty deep. Do you guys want to investigate it, or ignore it?” He asks, and they debate for a few minutes, before coming to an agreement. They’ll investigate one hundred feet in, no more, no less. Max waves his torch as a beacon for them as they all make their way to where he and Chris are waiting at the mouth of the cave.

As they swap their small torches for large spotlights and head into the cave, Josh babbles nervously about his research.

“If we’re going to find anything, it’ll be around here. Unless the landmass has shifted since it sunk, we should be between two large settlements, Canterbury and Dover, which was the main port with Calais. I couldn’t find much about either settlement, but a main port must have had a large population.” He knows they’re barely listening, if at all, but he can’t help it, he’s nervous and jittery with excitement. He’s been searching for this his whole life, he’s the thirteenth generation of his family to dedicate his life to it, and he may have actually found something.

When Tom’s satellite navigation tells them they’ve gone one hundred feet, they stop. They’ve found absolutely nothing, and the cave doesn’t seem to end any time soon, and Josh has an ache in his chest that feels an awful lot like grief.

“Just a little further,” he pleads, and they shake their heads.

“We can’t waste time on a dead end, and I won’t risk any of us going any further. We have no idea what might be lurking in here,” Tom insists, but Josh can’t bear the thought of turning back now.

He hesitates slightly as an idea comes to him, and before any of them can stop him, he turns and swims deeper into the cave. He ignores Tom’s voice in his ear, cursing and threatening him, and keeps swimming, moving his torch from side to side in long, slow sweeps, desperate to find _something_. He feels the water behind him move and speeds up. It’s either Tom coming to drag him out, or something he doesn’t want to think about.

He manages to get another thirty feet or so before a hand grabs his ankle, and he knows it’s Tom. He’s about to turn around and apologise, when his torch sweeps over the wall and something catches his eye.

“Franceschi, get your arse out of here, now!” Tom snarls, but Josh is frozen. Carved into the wall a few feet away, is large writing, in a language he’s never seen before.

“Look,” he finally manages to croak, eyes watering as he refuses to blink in case it disappears. Tom lets him go and moves beside him, squinting to see what his torch is pointed at.

“Is… Is that…?” He gasps, and Josh nods. “Guys, get in here. The fucker’s gone and found something,” he tells the others, and the two of them wait patiently, gaping at the carving, until the rest of the crew reach them.

When they get to them, Josh is pressed against the wall, fingers tracing the carved letters reverently.

“Do you recognise the language?” Matt asks, torn between being excited and tearing Josh a new one for bolting the way he did.

“It looks like a mixture of Old Saxon and Old Norse, but not in any way I’ve ever seen. The camera in my breather picked it up, though. I can work on translating it when we get back to Calais,” Josh replies absently, then turns to face them. “Can we go a little further? There might be more,” he begs, and this time, they can’t deny him.

They agree to keep going until the cave ends, or until they’ve got ninety minutes of air left, whichever happens first. Josh gets more and more excited as they go, as more writing appears on the wall every ten feet, until they reach the end of the cave. They move around the walls, making sure their cameras catch every bit of writing, and they’re about to turn back, when Jordan glances up.

“There’s light up there,” he announces in surprise, and they all look up. Sure enough, above the water is a thin shaft of light.

“D’you think we should…?” Vegan trails off, looking to Tom for orders. Tom fumbles for a moment as he checks his tank.

“Well, we’ve got three hours of air left, we’ve gone this far… Fuck it, let’s do it,” he decides, gripping Josh’s wrist as they move upwards, ensuring he doesn’t ascend too quickly. 

They’re more than a little surprised when their heads break the surface, and they find themselves in another cave, this one torchlit and full of angry looking people wielding spears. One of them barks something at them in a harsh, guttural language, and although Josh has never heard it before, he’s positive it’s the same language as the carvings. 

They freeze, they have no idea what he wants, but they can tell a wrong guess would end badly. Josh hesitates, then slowly raises his arms out of the water and takes his breather off.

“D-do you want us to leave?” He asks, making his voice as gentle and submissive as possible. The man glares at him and snarls in his own language again. Clearly, he doesn’t speak English, so Josh thinks for a moment, then points to himself and the crew, then points down into the water.

“We leave, yes?” He tries, and the man figures out what he’s trying to say. It’s clearly the wrong thing, though. The man shakes his head sharply and makes a ‘come here’ motion with his hand, then points to the ground in front of him, his meaning obvious, ‘get out of the fucking water’.

Josh goes to move to the edge of the pool, but Tom throws out his arm to stop him.

“I’ll go first, stay in the middle of the group,” he tells him quietly, in the same gentle, submissive tone Josh had used. Josh gets where he’s coming from. Tom’s in charge of the expedition, and he feels responsible for all of them, especially Josh. He watches warily as Tom slowly climbs out of the water, followed by Vegan and Nicholls. Josh goes next, grateful for Matt’s hand on his back helping him out.

They relax slightly when they’re not slaughtered as soon as they leave the water. They can’t relax completely, though. The group of men still have their spears pointed at them, and they still look pretty angry. Once all of them are out of the water, the group closes around them and they’re pushed into walking along a narrow tunnel.

After a while, the tunnel ends and they find themselves on the edge of a large settlement. The group of men glare at Josh suspiciously as he gasps and sways slightly. He feels Nicholls grip his elbow to steady him, hears him say something to him, but he can’t take it in, he feels giddy. Of all the things he hoped to find, he never expected this. One of the men gets impatient and shoves Josh harshly, making him stumble and drop to his knees. 

Four of the men move in to surround Josh, waving their spears threateningly and snapping at him in their language. Tom tries to worm his way between them to get to Josh, to help him, but they press in tighter and someone pulls him away from behind. They bark the same phrase twice more, before one of them grabs a handful of Josh’s still dripping hair and starts dragging him.

It takes a moment, but Josh manages to get his feet under himself and stumbles after him, trying to stay as close as possible to ease some of the burning pain in his scalp. Thankfully, they don’t go far, and it’s only a few minutes later Josh is dragged up the steps of a building and thrown to the slate floor. He flicks his eyes up to look, and finds himself in front of a woman sitting on a solid oaken throne. She looks at him disdainfully, throwing the same look to the rest of the crew as they’re led in behind him. The man who’d dragged him has a quick conversation with the woman, obviously a queen or something, and she nods as she says something with a tone of approval.

Josh doesn’t have time to wonder before he’s grabbed by the hair again and dragged across the room. The man throws him to the floor again, only this time, his head is on a wooden block. Josh doesn’t need to be a genius to figure out what’s about to happen, and he whimpers softly. The man raises an axe, and is just about to bring it down, when a new voice cries out urgently, and the man stops, resting the axe on his shoulder as he turns towards the voice.

Josh doesn’t dare move, barely even breathes, as the man, the queen, and the new voice; another man, Josh thinks; have a quick, but heated conversation. Finally, the queen ends the discussion with a defeated tone, and the man sighs in disappointment, dropping the axe beside the block. Josh decides not to move until he’s told, or dragged, and just lies there as still as possible, until a face appears above his.

“Are you alright?” It’s the owner of the new voice; his saviour, it would seem; his voice and eyes are soft, his hands gentle as they grip Josh’s shoulders and help him sit up. He has a strange accent, and he speaks slowly and deliberately, as though he’s not used to speaking English. Josh takes in the white quartz pendant around his neck, and the images stained into the skin of his right arm and realises he probably isn’t.

It’s not until his saviour repeats his question that Josh realises he’s been staring. He blushes slightly and nods.

“My scalp hurts a little, but I’ll live,” he reassures him, and the man nods happily. “W-what did you do? Why didn’t he…?” Josh trails off, heart still racing and slightly confused, and the man laughs softly.

“The chieftess is my sister, I convinced her to let me speak with you first,” he explains, and Josh nods, heart finally slowing slightly.

“Thank you…?” He trails off expectantly, and the man hesitates, pulling a face as he thinks.

“Dan. I think in your language, my name is Dan,” he says finally, and Josh holds his hand out to him.

“My name’s Josh, and I am eternally grateful,” he tells him, frowning slightly as Dan stares at Josh’s outstretched hand in confusion.

“I… I don’t know what you want,” Dan admits finally, and Josh laughs softly, then takes Dan’s hand and shakes it. “It’s called a handshake. It means ‘hello, I am unarmed and I mean you no harm’, or it used to, anyway. Most people just do it out of habit now,” he explains, and Dan’s eyebrows shoot up.

“There are more of you?” He asks softly, and Josh lets out a small ‘huh’ of surprise.

“It honestly hadn’t occurred to me that you wouldn’t know. There are billions of people above the water,” Josh tells him gently, and Dan gapes at him.

“Billions? But that- I don’t… We thought we were the only ones,” Dan stammers, and Josh nods, patting Dan’s hand comfortingly.

“The rest of the world didn’t know you were here, either,” he tells him, and Dan frowns.

“Then what were you looking for? When you found us, you must have been looking for something,” he wonders, and Josh huffs out a laugh.

He explains that they were looking for them, that the rest of the world had dismissed them as a myth, but stories of Great Britain had been passed down through his family for centuries. They hadn’t thought there would be people, but he knew the sunken island had to be here. He isn’t crazy, and he always refused to believe that that many of his ancestors were. When he’s done, he looks at Dan with a hungry look in his eyes.

“How did you survive? How can you possibly be here?” He asks reverently, and Dan shrugs.

“I have no idea. We think the writing in the cave, the one you came in, we think it tells the story, but we can’t read it,” he explains, and the linguist part of Josh’s brain goes into overdrive.

“So then… The language must have evolved past recognition… And to still have evidence of English… How do you know English?” He starts off mumbling to himself, the last asked frantically, and Dan gives him a bemused smile.

“I found some books in our library when I was a child. I always hated when I couldn’t read something, so I used the books to learn,” he explains, and Josh grins widely.

“Awesome,” he breathes, flinching and curling in on himself when the chieftess snaps impatiently.

Dan rubs Josh’s arm comfortingly, then stands and crosses the room to sit beside his sister. He says something to the group of men, who look to the chieftess for confirmation. As soon as she nods, they release the crew, who rush over and drop to their knees around Josh.

“Are you ok? What the fuck is going on?” Tom asks quickly, keeping his voice soft. Josh relays his conversation with Dan to them, keeping an eye on Dan as he talks rapidly in his own language, clearly doing the same as Josh.

They both finish explaining at the same time, and Dan and his sister start arguing. Josh hopes she doesn’t still want to execute them. While they wait, Max turns to Josh.

“So, do you think you can translate it? The story in the cave?” He asks, and Josh thinks about it for a moment.

“Maybe. I think, if Dan agrees to help me, between his knowledge of their language now, and my knowledge of Old Saxon and Old Norse, we might be able to do it,” he answers finally, eyes darting to Dan with a thrill of fear as he and his sister stand up and approach them.

The two of them kneel beside the crew, and the chieftess starts speaking.

“My sister would like to apologise for the way she treated you. We did not believe there were others. She thought you to be evil spirits, she thought she was protecting our people,” Dan translates, and Josh nods, giving the chieftess a hesitant smile, which becomes warm and genuine when she returns it, before turning to Dan and speaking again. “She would like to invite you to stay with our people for however long you wish. Anything you need, consider it done,” he nods approvingly and grins at his sister as he speaks, and Josh turns to the crew, giving them a pleading look that makes Tom laugh.

“Your family has been searching for this for centuries, d’you honestly think we’d drag you away now that you’ve finally found it?” He grins, and Josh beams gratefully.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he bubbles, then turns to Dan. “We would love to stay, and if you wouldn’t mind, I was hoping you could help me translate the writing in the cave. I think between us, we could manage it,” he explains, and Dan thinks about it for a moment, nods, then turns to translate Josh’s words for his sister.

She smiles warmly and gives an approving nod, then turns, eyeing Josh curiously as she reaches out, gently stroking the damp sleeve of his wetsuit as she speaks to Dan.

“She wants to know if everyone above the water has such strange skin,” he relays, looking curious himself, and Josh laughs softly. He explains the concept of a wetsuit, waits for Dan to translate, then peels the sleeve from where it’s stuck to his arm and folds it back to reveal the skin. The two of them confer curiously for a few moments, both stroking his sleeve and arm, then Dan turns to him again. “Why is your skin so dark?” He asks, and Josh is confused for a few seconds, until he realises. Dan, and everyone he’s seen so far, are extremely pale. Of course they are, they’ve never seen the sun. Do they even know the sun exists? 

Josh thinks it over for a minute, wondering how to explain the sun to someone, when Jordan cuts in to help.

“There’s… A lot of light above the water, it makes the skin darker,” he explains, and though Dan frowns, clearly doesn’t fully understand, he obviously realises how hard it is to explain and nods, muttering back and forth with his sister for a minute, before she gives them a bright smile, stands and strides away as Dan turns back to them.

“Come, we’ll get you some dry clothes. Sarah has decided to have a feast to welcome you. I think you’ll be more comfortable in dry clothing, yes?” He checks as he stands up, smiling to himself as they nod and stand with him.

Dan takes them to the rooms they’ll be staying in, letting them know that all the clothing they could want is already in each room. Josh starts to wonder if he wouldn’t have been more comfortable in his wetsuit. The only clothing choice seems to be leggings and a tunic that falls to just below the hips. He looks through everything again, to be sure, and finally admits defeat, settling for an azure tunic and light blue leggings. He looks around for shoes, before thinking back and realising none of the native people were wearing them.

Dan comes back for them soon after, and leads them to where the feast is being held. As they walk, Dan turns his head to speak to Max, but stops and whips his head around as Josh lets out a whimpering gasp.

“Y-you… You have gills,” Josh stammers, and Dan frowns, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know that word. What is gills?” He asks, and Josh reaches out to touch them, then hesitates.

“Is it ok if I…?” He trails off, and Dan nods, stepping closer. Josh continues his aborted movement, reaching out the rest of the way and gently trailing his fingers along the thin, silvery slits on the side of Dan’s throat. “These, we call them gills,” he explains gently, and Dan frowns, reaching up and gently tilting Josh’s head so he can look, fingers ghosting over Josh’s throat to feel.

“You don’t have them. How do you breathe in the water?” He asks with concern, and Josh huffs a laugh.

“We can’t, if we try to breathe underwater, we die. We use metal canisters full of air, I’ll show you the one I was using later, if you want?” He offers, and Dan nods as they both realise they’re still touching each others throats, both dropping their hands and backing away with a blush.

“I would be very interested in seeing that, thank you,” Dan responds gruffly, clearing his throat and continuing their path, Josh falling into step beside him, ignoring the muffled sniggering coming from behind them.

Everyone eats far too much at the feast, and Josh completely forgets about showing Dan the scuba tank. He’s standing in the middle of his room in his boxers the next morning, deciding what colours he wants to wear, when there’s a soft tapping on his door. He calls out to the person to come in, and the door cracks open as Dan pokes his head around it.

“Oh, sorry, I can come back…?” He trails off with a slight flush, but Josh waves him off.

“It’s fine, come in. Just… Deciding what to wear,” he explains, gesturing to the wardrobe.

Dan comes over to stand beside him, looking into the wardrobe for a moment, then reaching in and pulling out a royal purple tunic with a gold tie at the waist, and leggings in a soft lavender.

“These ones. They’ll bring out your eyes,” he announces as he hands them over, and Josh nods in thanks as he takes them. Once he’s dressed, he turns back to Dan with a warm smile.

“So, what did you need?” He asks softly, and Dan smiles.

“You said you’d show me your breathing machine, remember?” He prompts, and Josh nods, moving to the corner he’d dumped his diving gear in the night before. He extracts the tank from the pile and sits on the bed, waving to the spot beside him in silent invitation.

Once Dan is settled next to him, he explains the different parts and functions, pointing out each one as he talks. He lets Dan try on the breather and turns the knob on the tank, letting him breathe with it for a moment, stifling a laugh as Dan pulls the breather away from his face, coughing as he does. He’d done the same thing the first time he’d used it, too. When he’s explained everything, and Dan’s happy, Josh sets the tank on the floor and twists towards him a little.

“My turn. Tell me about these,” he requests, lightly trailing his fingers across the dark ink on Dan’s forearm.

“You don’t have them?” Dan asks, eyes roving across the parts of Josh’s skin he can see and realising it’s completely unmarred as Josh shakes his head.

“Nope. I’ve never seen anyone with anything like it before, either,” he answers, and Dan happily tells him about tattoos, pointing out each image on his arm and explaining the significance of it.

“Would you like to get one?” Dan offers when he’s done, eyes sparkling with mirth at the slightly terrified look Josh gives him.

“W-what?” He squeaks, and Dan can’t help the laugh that slips out.

“It really doesn’t hurt that much, and I think it would be a fantastic way to welcome you to the tribe,” he coaxes, and Josh wavers for a minute.

“It doesn’t hurt?” He checks, and Dan grins as he shrugs one shoulder.

“A little, but not much,” he reassures, and Josh caves, biting his lip as he nods, relaxing slightly at the beaming smile Dan gives him. “Brilliant, now you have to choose a design. Make sure it’s something that really means a lot to you, they don’t come off, remember,” he tells him, and Josh thinks about it, then goes to the corner, grabbing the small airtight bag he’d brought with him.

Dan watches curiously as Josh rifles through the bag for a minute, then takes out a folded cloth. He sits back down beside Dan and carefully unfolds it, smoothing it out on his lap reverently.

“This. I want to get this tattooed,” he tells him softly, and Dan leans closer to see. It’s a sewn image of a blue and gold shield with an animal and flowers either side of it, a banner with strange words across the bottom.

“What is it?” He asks, wanting to reach out and touch the unfamiliar material, but he can see how much it means to Josh, he won’t risk damaging it.

“It’s called a coat of arms. They used to be a sign of some kind of achievement, but pretty much every family has one now. They usually contain elements that are important to each family. This is my family’s coat of arms. The animals are a mythical creature called a dragon, we have those because we’ve always had a deep love and fascination for mythical creatures; the flowers are thistles, because we’re descended from a group of people from this island, called the Scots. The thistle was their flower,” he explains, smiling softly, and Dan finally reaches out, fingers hesitant and obsessively gentle as they trail over the writing at the bottom.

“What about this?” He asks as he marvels at the cool, smooth feeling of the cloth.

“It’s Latin. _’veritas vos liberabit’_. It means ‘the truth will set you free’. For so long, my family has believed that all this, that you and your people, were still here. Everyone else thought it was never here to begin with, they laughed, mocked us, called us mad. I can almost feel the twelve generations that came before me celebrating,” he tells him with a wry smile, and Dan smirks.

“I would love to be there to see the looks on their faces when you go back and show them just how wrong they were,” he comments, and Josh laughs brightly, then stands up and holds his hand out to Dan.

“Shall we, then?”

They happen upon the rest of the crew as they make their way to the tattooer, and of course they want to watch. When they get to the small, brightly lit room, Dan introduces them to the tattooer, Lee, and tells him why they’re there, finishing by explaining the significance of the design and practically begging him to be as careful as possible with the cloth. He nods understandingly, and smiles at Josh as he holds out his hand for it. He’s slightly reluctant to hand it over, but knows he has to. Lee’s gentle as he takes it from him, handling it with respectful hands as he carefully takes a tracing of it before giving it back to him.

Once he’s ready, Lee motions to the chair and fires off a question to Dan.

“He needs to know where you want it,” he relays, and Josh bites his lip as he thinks about it.

“You know more about this, where d’you think would be best?” He finally asks, and Dan mulls it over, then runs his thumb over the inside of his own left forearm to indicate.

“Here. The skin there heals fast, and it’ll be easy to show off,” he explains, and Josh nods in agreement, then turns to Lee, holding out his left arm and pointing to a spot an inch or so below his elbow. He nods and moves Josh’s arm to a freestanding armrest to steady it, then presses the tracing to the spot he’d indicated, making sure the temporary ink on the underside evenly stains his skin before he peels it off.

Josh takes a sharp breath at the loud, angry buzzing that comes from the needle, tensing as Lee moves it towards his arm. He stifles a yelp and flails his right arm as the needle pierces his skin. Max figures out what he wants first and slides his chair closer, grabbing Josh’s hand from the air and holding it, letting Josh squeeze his hand tightly.

“You fucking liar!” He whines, voice wavering, and turns his head to glare at Dan accusingly. Dan’s eyes go wide and he shares a baffled look with Lee as he glances up from his work.

“I’m sorry. I don’t think it hurts that much, I didn’t realise you would. Do you want me to tell him to stop?” He asks worriedly, but Josh shakes his head.

“No, I’m not spending the rest of my life walking around with a half finished tattoo. Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He insists, the end coming out as a pained groan.

Josh swears and whines his way through it, until Lee sits back and sets down the needle a little over an hour later, and announces, through Dan, that he’s done.

“So, not an experience you’d recommend?” Tom asks with a slight laugh, and Josh pouts slightly.

“Not an enjoyable one, no,” he huffs, flinching as Lee smooths a generous glob of thick green paste over the red, swollen skin. A balm to help it heal, Dan explains. Nicholls stops Lee as he’s about to cover it with a rough looking cloth, taking a sterile, waterproof dressing from his bag and covering it with that instead.

As they step back out onto the path, Josh glances at the dressing on his arm and turns to Nicholls.

“Will this hold up underwater for a while?” He asks, and Nicholls nods.

“It doesn’t matter how long you’re down there, it’ll hold until you pull it off, why?” He explains, and Josh’s eyes flick towards Dan.

“We won’t be able to look at the video of the carvings until we get back to the surface. I wanted to go back down there with Dan so we could both get another look,” he tells them, and they all nod.

“Just be careful, you need to leave yourself enough air to get back to the boat,” Tom warns, and Josh nods.

“We won’t be down there that long, promise,” he reassures, and Tom nods happily.

The two of them go back to Josh’s room for his tank, and he hesitates. He’s really not looking forward to fighting his way into his wetsuit again.

“What do you usually wear when you go in the water?” He asks Dan thoughtfully, and Dan pulls his tunic off, drops it on Josh’s bed, and motions to himself with his hand. Josh nods and does the same, grabs his tank and leads the way out of the room. 

Josh is glad for the scuba notebook he’d brought with him, there’s no way they would be able to memorise all of the carvings. He leads Dan to the place where the carvings start, and they slowly make their way back, Josh writing down the words as they go. They lose track of time, though, until a sharp beeping from his breather makes Josh jump. He checks his tank and swears as he realises he only has three minutes of air left. He quickly scribbles down a message for Dan on a clean page; telling him he has to get out of the water, and asking him to finishing copying down the carvings; then shoves the notebook into Dan’s hand and starts swimming quickly towards the end of the tunnel. 

Dan reads the page and decides he can come back down later, then swims after Josh. He doesn’t have to go far to find him, trying desperately to keep swimming, gasping for air he doesn’t have. Dan quickly realises what’s happening, and takes a deep breath. He waits for his body to filter the water out of his lungs, grabs Josh around the waist with one arm as the other reaches up and pulls the breather away from Josh’s face, and presses his mouth to Josh’s, pushing his breath into Josh’s mouth and hoping he catches on. He does, and swallows the water that found its way into his mouth so he can breathe in gratefully.

It isn’t ideal, the air Dan is giving him is mostly carbon dioxide, but it’s enough to keep Josh alive as Dan wraps his other arm around Josh and starts swimming back along the tunnel, much faster than Josh ever could. Thankfully, he doesn’t have to slow down when he gives Josh another breath every minute or so, and they make it back to the cave in a little more than three minutes.

Tom, Matt, and Vegan are waiting at the edge of the pool for them as Dan pulls Josh to the surface with him. They grab Josh’s arms and drag him out as he gasps for breath, vomiting violently as his body rejects the salt water he swallowed.

“I told him to be careful! Fucking idiot,” Tom bites out as Josh finally stops vomiting, curling into a ball on his side as he tries to catch his breath, his whole body trembling hard as his head throbs and his vision blurs. Vegan kneels beside him and keeps his fingers pressed against Josh’s neck to monitor his heartbeat as Matt helps him coax Josh to drink some fresh water.

What’s happening? Why is he…?” Dan trails off, panicking slightly at how sick Josh is as he drops to his knees beside Matt.

“Our bodies can’t handle salt water the way yours can. He swallowed quite a lot, so it’s making him sick,” Vegan explains distractedly as he takes care of Josh, and Dan bites his lip.

“It’s my fault, I pulled his breathing mask off,” he admits guiltily, and the three of them look at him with gentle eyes as Tom grips his shoulder.

“You were breathing for him, yeah?” He asks, and Dan nods slowly. “Then you have nothing to feel guilty about. He’ll be sick from this for a few days, but he’ll be fine. If you hadn’t pulled his breather off to help him breathe, he’d be dead,” he tells him seriously, and Dan nods, most of the tension leaving his shoulders. He knows Tom’s right, sick for a few days is infinitely better than dead.

At Vegan’s insistence, Josh spends the next week in bed. On the second day, Dan had gone back down into the tunnel and finished copying down the carvings, so Josh spends his time trying to translate them. He can’t without knowledge of the current language, though, and Dan’s avoiding him; not that it’s hard, with Josh on bedrest. 

Once Vegan finally lets him get up and move around, Josh throws on some clothes and goes looking for Dan. He eventually runs into Sarah, and asks her if she’s seen him by tapping the skin beside his eye and running his hand up and down his right arm. She catches on immediately and nods with a warm smile, pointing down the street then miming opening a book. It takes Josh a few seconds, but then he remembers Dan mentioning a library and realises that’s what she’s trying to say. He grins gratefully and nods, and she pats his arm affectionately and lets him rush off.

Josh finds him soon after, hunched over a table with a book near the back of the library. Dan jumps and looks up when Josh pulls out the chair across from him and drops down into it.

“You’re feeling better,” he comments, and Josh snorts.

“I was feeling better days ago, Vegan’s been holding me hostage,” he huffs, and Dan smiles softly.

“He was worried. We all were,” he tells him, and Josh frowns.

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it,” he replies, a little sharper than he’d meant to, and Dan looks down, playing with the edge of the book.

“You were sick because of me,” he mumbles guiltily, flinching when Josh barks out a laugh.

“I’m _alive_ because of you,” he corrects, and Dan peeks up at him hopefully.

“Tom did tell me that, but I thought maybe you’d…” He trails of quietly, and Josh sighs.

“You thought I might blame you anyway,” he finishes for him, and Dan nods.

“I should have known you wouldn’t, I’m sorry,” he murmurs, and Josh decides the best thing to do right now is change the subject.

“So, you going to help me with this gibberish or what?” He asks cheerily, dropping his notebook onto the table between them, and Dan grins, nodding as he flips it open.

It takes them almost a month, but Josh had been right, between the two of them, they have everything they need to translate it. It tells of how Great Britain was slowly lost to the ocean, bit by bit, as sea levels began to rise over the course of three centuries. With each generation, the people adapted and evolved in small ways, until they were already mostly living in the water by the time what little land was left was swallowed by a great wave. They had left the carvings for future generations to learn their past, not realising they’d keep adapting and evolving until they couldn’t read it and would eventually forget the story. Josh can’t help but laugh when, half way through their translations, he asks Dan about the quartz necklaces he and his people wear, and Dan admits that he doesn’t know, only for them to find the answer halfway down the page they’re working on. It turns out the first generation to settle here, the last to live on land, had collected the quartz and made necklaces from it, leaving them for their descendents, wanting them to have something from the surface.

A few weeks after they finish the translation, the rest of the crew start talking about going back to the surface. Josh had kind of forgotten they’d have to go back, and he’s not sure he wants to. He knows he has to, though. The world needs to know how wrong they were, his family needs an apology, even if most of them aren’t around to hear it anymore. He joins in their discussions, and they work out that if they take turns sharing their oxygen with Josh, they should have enough to get back to the surface. They’re not sure how they’re going to get back to Calais, though. They know the boat won’t still be waiting for them after all this time.

The night before they leave, Josh is gathering up everything he’s taking with him, when someone knocks on his door. He opens it to find Dan, and grins, moving to let him in. Dan hovers nervously in the middle of the room for a few minutes, then clears his throat.

“Sarah’s going to make a big fuss in front of everyone in the morning, but… I wanted to give you yours,” he rambles, looking at the floor, and Josh laughs softly, Dan flushing slightly as he realises how little sense he’s making. 

He moves over to Josh and motions for him to turn around. He’s does as asked, and Dan reaches around, fastening a leather cord around Josh’s neck. Once he’s done, Josh looks down, his breath catching slightly when he sees the quartz pendant resting against his chest. 

“W-what…?” He stammers, turning to Dan with big, confused eyes.

“You gave us back our past, you’ll always be one of us,” he explains with a soft smile, and Josh grins, huffing a tiny laugh as he tries to find something to say.

Dan doesn’t give him the chance to find the words, losing the last little bit of restraint he’d been clinging to, surging forward and kissing Josh, fingers sliding into Josh’s hair as he responds easily, one arm going around Dan’s waist as his other hand presses against Dan’s back, fingers gripping his tunic and digging into his skin slightly. When they break apart, Dan presses his forehead to Josh’s and sighs deeply.

“Don’t leave. Please.” He breathes against Josh’s lips, still clinging desperately to him.

“Come with me,” Josh counters breathlessly, and Dan leans back slightly, staring at him with wide eyes. “You kept saying how much you wanted to see the rest of the world. Come with us, and I’ll show you every inch of it,” he promises, never meaning anything as much as he means this. Dan hesitates as he thinks about it for a minute, then slowly nods, grinning as Josh beams at him.

The next morning, they make their way back out of the tunnel and slowly drift upwards. As soon as they break the surface, warm summer sun hits them, and Josh quickly pulls off his breather, turning to Dan to make sure he’s alright. He grins when he sees Dan with his face turned towards the sun, eyes closed and smiling blissfully as he soaks in the warmth.

“I understand now, why you couldn’t explain it. It’s… Magnificent,” Dan laughs as Josh floats over to him, both turning to look as Tom lets out a whoop of joy.

“Yes! I knew that crazy fucker would be here!” He laughs, and they all turn to where he’s looking. Fifty feet away is a boat, and Oliver is leaning against the rail, grinning manically as he waves to them.

When they climb up the ladder Oliver throws down for them, he takes one look at Dan and turns to Josh, hands coming up to rest on either side of his face, grinning widely.

“I never doubted you for a single second, you wonderful, fantastic man!” He announces giddily, and Dan can’t help himself as he moves forward, wrapping an arm around Josh’s waist and tugging him back against his side possessively. Oliver just laughs ecstatically and claps his hands. “Right, I think you boys deserve a drink!” He crows, herding them inside.

As soon as they get to Calais, Oliver takes them straight to the airport and onto a plane, which is a slightly terrifying experience for Dan, but he handles it better than any of them were expecting. When they land in Baltimore, Josh glances out of the window and grins to himself. Dan freezes as Josh covers his eyes with his hands when he’s almost at the door of the plane.

“Trust me,” he whispers in his ear, and Dan nods, relaxing back against Josh’s chest, letting him carefully lead him down the stairs. The others watch with amusement as Josh walks them both to the middle of the airfield. “You thought the sun was brilliant. Wait until you see this,” he whispers, then takes his hands away from Dan’s eyes, wrapping his arms around Dan’s waist and resting his chin on his shoulder. Dan looks around in confusion for second, until Josh raises his hand, tilting his chin up towards the sky. Dan gasps, leaning back into Josh’s embrace as he gazes at the stars in awe. They stay there for a while, ignoring Oliver cooing over how adorable they are from somewhere behind them.

Two days later, Josh can’t keep the smug, triumphant smirk from his face as he once again barges in on a meeting of the department heads and the board of directors, this time with Dan at his side. They all turn towards the door with scowls of annoyance, until they realise who’s standing there.

“Oh my god. Josh. We thought you were dead,” Alex chokes out, too shocked to even notice Dan.

“Well, I’m not, and you owe me an apology,” Josh informs him coldly, and Alex’s eyes finally slide over to Dan. He stares at him blankly for a few seconds as his mind processes what he’s seeing, until his eyes go wide and he chokes slightly.

“Wh-you-are you kidding me?” He splutters, and rather than answer, Josh walks over to the laptop they have connected to the projector and slots the memory stick into it.

It’s not all of the footage they have, just the highlights needed to prove his point. Chris was right, the shots of his near-execution really tie the whole thing together. When the footage ends, Alex turns back to Josh with wide eyes.

“You were right. All this time, you were totally right,” he admits hoarsely, and Josh leans against Dan’s side, turning his head to look at him with a grin.

“Is it everything you wanted?” He laughs, and Dan snorts.

“Better,” he grins, then turns to kiss the tip of Josh’s nose, then tilts his head towards the door. “Shall we?” Josh nods, then looks over at Alex.

“Keep the memory stick,” he announces cheerily, then turns to leave, stopping just inside the door and half turning back towards Alex. “Oh, and one last thing. I fucking quit,” he spits, throwing his arm around Dan’s shoulders as they leave.

When they get back to their apartment, Josh leads Dan over to the map of the world he’d pinned to the wall.

“So, where to first?” He asks, rocking them both from side to side and humming happily to himself as Dan’s eyes flick over the map, considering his options. Finally, Dan makes a small noise, and Josh opens his eyes, looking at where Dan’s finger is trailing across a section of map.

“That’s mountains, right?” He asks, and Josh hums in confirmation. “I want to be up high. I want to go there first,” he decides, and Josh grins.

“Perfect.”


End file.
